Before the honey bees leave their home hive to find a new home, the mother queen comes out of the hive and waits for half of her children to pack as much honey as possible for the road and gather around her. Once they are ready then the queen will take off and her children will follow. Sometimes they wait outside of the hive for a day before taking off. Sometimes there might be a false start and everyone returns to the hive temporarily. But eventually the mother queen and half of her children will leave.

So far this hive has been taking its time to prepare for swarming – the bees have been slowly gathering outside. As of this evening they are still there. Since the bees won’t swarm at night, most likely they will wait till tomorrow to leave.